Fresh Static Snow
by Setaflow
Summary: The seven teens who come back from the mountains try to find a way to put their lives back together.
1. Picking Up the Pieces

**Hello y'all. I just finished Until Dawn and I just wanted to put in my interpretation of what I think would happen after the seven teens came back from the mountain.**

 **Going by the "Everyone Lives" ending with one major exception being Josh because whatdoyoumeanhegotturnedintoawendigohahanothatneverhappenedshutyourwhoremouth.**

 **All characters belong to Until Dawn and Supermassive Games.**

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Seven different people in seven different positions. It just seemed to be how it was.

Sam, ever the loner, had ignored the line of clean plastic seats against the walls in favor of the kids table across the room. She sat on top of it, aloof, swinging her legs so it looked like she was still running. Blankets had been draped over her shoulders after she confessed that she had gone wading through frozen water in order to get out of the mines. Occasionally, she itched at the bandages that covered the burns on her face but she said nothing. She only stared at the opposite wall and shook her head, having a disagreement only she herself could rationalize.

Chris had taken the far end of the row, his now splinted leg resting on a repositioned chair so it could remove some of the burden. He stared intently at the tiles patterns on the waiting room floor, watching them cross and intersect with each other. All the humor that he tossed around so willingly had disappeared from his face, his mouth drooping uncharacteristically. He kept itching the back of his neck for some reason, one hand clamped firmly there while the other stroked Ashley's hair.

Ashley had wordlessly claimed two or three seats for herself and curled up with her head resting on Chris's lap. Yet, she refused to fall asleep. Whether it was resorting to sniffling or humming or tapping on the chair leg with her fingers, she was determined to keep herself awake. No one rebuked her, not now. Her face had long since been cleaned of the blood that had been there for most of the night, but that lingering shadow of a black eye still showed over her face in the dimly lit room. She was now humming a vaguely Disney sounding theme as Chris soothed her silently, her brown eyes wide and glassy.

Emily had refused a chair. She stood there, dressed in all black like the Grim Reaper herself, casting glance after glance from the corner of the room near the door. While her face had maintained it's permanent scowl she had grown famous for in high school, there was no anger behind it, no mockery. She merely looked defeated. The bite to the shoulder that had nearly cost her her life had been patched up and treated, but it no doubt still weighted heavily in the back of Em's mind. Her eyes went all around the room, gliding over everyone, but her gaze eventually went to the floor. They all did.

Matt had dragged his seat over to his girlfriend, loyal to the last. Emily, who given normal circumstance would probably had said something sarcastic, accepted his presence without a sound. He sat there almost protectively: arms and legs crossed, a look on his face like he thought someone would say something against it but of course no one did. His letter jacket was bunched up on his lap—it was as if he thought someone was going to snatch it out of his arms. The argument he put up about possibly giving up the damn thing, even though it was covered in blood with one arm halfway torn off, would have sent everyone into hysterics had it been a different situation.

Jessica had also refused a seat, but she instead took to the floor. She curled up into a ball with her knees to her chin and her arms wrapped tightly around them. Her hair that she had taken so much pride in growing out was so ratted and tangled that cutting it off would be a mercy at this point. Her long walk through the mines had left her both blue and bloodied; she had to get over one hundred stitches just to fix the wounds to her face alone. Jess was the only one speaking words, but it was all just babble. The only thing that would come out anymore were just the words "not me…not…me," in a hushed whisper as she rocked back and forth, clutching the blankets she had been given. No one knew what she was talking about.

Mike had taken the opposite end of the chairs with Jessica, his good hand resting on her head awkwardly. For as many women as he had been with, this was probably as unique an experience as you could ask for. His mangled hand was wrapped so thickly it could have been a boxing glove instead of a hospital bandage. Mike shivered in his old jacket that no one could figure out where he got it, glancing around and trying to catch other people eyes. So far, only he and Sam seemed to exchange silent words. What was said couldn't have been reassuring. His fingers twitched occasionally, the pointer finger still curled as if a shotgun was still in it's grasp.

The seven friends all sat there, lost in contemplation. Through the smoke and the snow came the bright lights and the cameras and the prodding voices. Seven hours of each and every single one of them getting pounded with a hailstorm of questions from investigators had left all of them feeling worse than before. Chris and Sam had both come out fuming, though both refused to say why. Jessica actually had to be carried out like a toddler—she had passed out during the interviews and no one had the heart to wake her up again. Matt came out looking ashen, much too shaken from his recounting of the events. Even Emily, for all of her poise and confidence, came out spitting profanities that would make frat boys feel unclean and refusing to look at the officers.

Murmurs trailed after the seven teens in the police station, hidden in plain sight. The words must've spread fast, of eight kids who went up to the mountains and nearly never came back. Or so they said. Desk ladies spoke in hushed words and sneaky smiles. The officers exchanged news with their files, their stolen glances not missed. No one believed their story. Of course not. And even though they were all together again, the weight of their loneliness, their isolation, was still so heavy.

After the police were through with them, they were admitted into a local hospital as far away from the mountain as the authorities could manage. Chris's leg had been severely sprained from his fall while outrunning the wendigos earlier in the night. Both Mike and Sam were turning pale, and hypothermia would've probably set in within the hour had they not been given real medical treatment. Jess came out last, her face and chest patched up, woozy from the anesthetic.

With what little power remained in their cell phones, they all called their parents and explained the situation as loosely as they could. "No wendigos," Sam had decided as she pulled out her phone. "You saw how the police reacted. What will our families think?"

"We can't just lie to them." Ashley had whimpered. "We can't just blame this all on a wild night gone wrong."

"We don't have a choice," Emily grunted in a manner that signaled a clear end to the conversation. Ash opened her mouth to say more but thought better of it and closed it again.

Sam's attempt at a story was the best one they could muster. That they had drunkenly gone out from the lodge and fell into the abandoned mines. That Mike had gotten his fingers crushed in a rock fall and had to amputate them. That Emily had been bitten by a feral wolf that the others had chased off. That Jess had slipped down a broken elevator, which wasn't exactly a lie. That Josh got separated and wandered off, scared and alone. That they looked and looked and looked but by dawn they still hadn't found him.

"Yeah…yeah the lodge exploded. No, I don't know how it happened. Maybe some vandals or something. We got back there but by then it had burst into flames and we didn't know what to do and then the helicopters showed up and they took us to the police station," Sam explained hurriedly, trying to stop the avalanche of questions her father was asking her. "No, no, we're all here. Well…except Josh. He got lost, Dad. No, he…we all got separated. Maybe he fell down a mine shaft, I don't know."

Ashely had burst into tears when she called her mother, and it sounded like it was just as bad on the other end of the line. Matt's parents, both of whom were doctors, kept the conversation much curter than the others. Jess, still in a state of shock, couldn't even talk, and so Mike had to repeat the process with his girlfriend's parents once he was done talking to his own.

And finally, only one call remained. They all stared guiltily at Sam's phone, no one making the first move.

"I'll call the Washingtons," Sam finally said.

"No," Chris spoke up suddenly, his voice hardening. "I'll call them."

"You sure, man?" Matt dropped his voice, glancing around, looking for support. "You're not going to be in for a good conversation."

Emily began to nod and Ash's mouth opened wordlessly but Chris cut them both off. "Josh and I have been friends the longest. If they…if they'd want to hear it from someone, they'd rather hear it from me."

Sam looked doubtful, eyes fliting back and forth and looking for any objections. When there were none, she sighed and handed the phone to Chris.

What followed was forty-five minutes of Chris speaking one word sentences as he miserably tried to tell the Washingtons what had happened. Even when he retreated to the nearly bathroom, they could all still hear Mrs. Washington's screams of agony and Mr. Washington's desperate demands of the truth. Ashley covered her ears with her beanie at one point, and even Mike turned away to block out the noise. Chris could barely get a word in edgewise after he told the whole story. Occasionally, he would respond to the people on the other line with a "yes" or a "err…maybe" or an "I don't know".

When he was done, he limped back into the room and settled down on the plastic seats near the front door, eyes downcast. Ashley joined him, lying down so her head was in his lap. The seven of them stayed like that for who really knew how long until someone came through the door.

The sheriff and her deputy entered, drawing the attention of all the teenagers in the room. She tapped her foot lightly. "Is there someone who would like to hear me out? I have information that concerns you."

Six pairs of eyes fell on Sam.

Exhaling, Sam pushed herself off the table and was ushered out the door by the sheriff. Outside of the waiting room, darkness was settling and snow was whipping past the large glass windows. She was just now feeling the exhaustion that she had been determinately shaking off for the last twenty-four hours. The lobby was thankfully deserted aside from the receptionist, and as the sheriff guided Sam to a vacant couch, the deputy strolled over to speak with him.

"I understand it's been a long day," the sheriff began awkwardly, like she was trying to apologize. Sam kept her face expressionless.

The sheriff returned her gaze to one of the folders she held. "You American kids came a long way up here and unfortunately, there isn't any way we can get you home in the next twenty-four hours. I assume you've all called your parents?"

Sam nodded.

"Good. Well, the best option we have is to put you up in a hotel for the next night or two until either your parents come to get you or you all can get a flight home," the sheriff offered.

Sam hesitated. "We don't have enough money for a hotel."

"We already figured. We can cover the expenses for a night or two." That was the deputy, strolling over from the front desk. Sam attempted to look behind him and saw the receptionist gathering his things and retreating into the back office. "We already looked it up. There's a place the next county over, if you're okay with that. They have a two-bedroom suite for pretty cheap. You can roll in some cots and then all get some rest."

At this point, with the police showing more kindness than she could ever dream of, Sam couldn't find it in her to argue with that kind of deal. "That would be great," she confessed. "That would actually be really, really nice."

"So that's settled," the sheriff nodded, gathering her files and standing up again. "Why don't you gather your friends, Sam, and meet us outside. It'll be a bit of a drive but you should get there before ten-ish if we don't hit a lot of traffic."

With Sam's nod, the two cops headed for the door. Sam pushed herself up and headed back to the waiting room. Pulling the door open showed that her friends were in more or less the same position they'd been in when she'd left. Mike was whispering something softly to Jess but gently pulled her up and headed for Sam when she walked in. The others came over more slowly, Ashley supporting Chris and Emily and Matt staying closer than Sam had seen them in a long time.

"Well?" Mike quietly asked, his arm still around Jessica, who shivered in the crook of his elbow. "What's the plan?"

While Sam explained the situation, Emily raised an eyebrow, skepticism plain on her face. "How far is it? The sooner we're out of this damn hospital, the fucking better."

"The deputy said it was the next county over, and they said we'd be there by ten unless we hit traffic."

Matt and Chris were the first two that agreed, eagerly nodding at the thought of a warm night in bed. Mike and Ashley nodded as well, and Emily gave her consent too. "I'm too tired to argue anymore," she confessed, her voice sagging. "I just want to put this whole thing behind us."

Mike hugged Jessica tighter, as if fearful of losing her again. "We should go." He sighed.

Sam led the way out of the hospital where two police cruisers were waiting for them through the blizzard. Sam, Mike, and Jess climbed into the sheriff's car while Emily, Matt, Chris, and Ashely rode with the deputy. Off they went, Sam in the passenger seat while Mike and Jess huddled together in the back. Even though the heat was blasting, Jess was still visibly shivering, and Mike offered her a share of his torn army jacket to help keep her warm. Truth be told, Sam was still a little freezing herself but for entirely different reasons. All the snow, the limited vision of the headlights, the feelings of darkness pressing on her every side, it was unsettling Sam more than she cared to admit. Sam hugged her arms close, trying to avoid looking out the window.

"What did you tell the folks?" the sheriff asked, snapping Sam out of her trance. She stayed silent, however, an odd mixture of fear and bitterness churning in her stomach. To her relief, Mike answered for her.

"That we got drunk and fell down a mineshaft," he spoke sourly. "That a night that nearly got all of us killed and made us lose one of our friends was just really a drunken night of partying gone wrong and we were just being stupid, because you don't believe us."

"And I still don't." the sheriff agreed matter-of-factly, her fingers drumming on the steering wheel. "Roger and I think all this stuff about wendigos and curses and men with flamethrowers is bullshit, I won't lie to you. But the doctors told us when they went to check up on your friend Emily that those bites she received couldn't have been from any animals in this region of Alberta. And there was no sign of alcohol or drugs in your systems, not in the past twenty-four hours. You'll be pleased to know that we are sending a small squadron up to the mountains as soon as we can to investigate the mines and look for Josh. Hopefully we can find him before he gets too deep into the structure."

And how long will that take?" Sam nearly jumped out of her seat.

"Depends." The sheriff mused as she took a sharp left off the main road. "Could be a few days, a week at the latest. If there are mines down there, they haven't been heard from in the last fifty years at least. We don't know how far they go."

Sam pressed herself against the seat, feeling disheartened. A large part of her wished she had stayed back at the lodge, just to see if she could look for Josh. Another part of her knew it was completely hopeless, too. After the explosion…well, she couldn't really remember much. There was a lot of smoke, and a lot of heat. Her back was scorched from the blast that sent her flying twenty feet into the front yard. She remembered Mike pulling her away from a rogue fireball that was spinning through the air, a look of panic on his face that she couldn't comprehend. But by the time the thought of Josh had crossed Sam's mind she was already miles away, riding in the back of a helicopter with Chris and Ashely pressed on either side of her and a woman already asking questions. The smoke from the lodge was trailing behind them, the wisps of dark gray almost reaching out for the copter blades like it wanted to grab them and pull them back.

"Does that mean you believe us?" she pressed on, trying to stifle the guilt that was screeching in her stomach.

The sheriff thought for a moment. "I don't believe in all this wendigo talk you kids are set on," she chose her words slowly and methodically, "but I do think there's more to that mountain then meets the eye."

Mike and Sam exchanged a glance but said nothing. Sam hunched herself further over in her seat and stayed silent for the remainder of the trip. For a while, the only things in the car was the rattling of the heater, the occasional rhythmic pulse of the turn signal, and Jess's deep shuddering breaths. The sounds together weighed on Sam, who found herself beginning to feel her eyes droop.

They rolled into the hotel just before ten, and the snow was starting to let up as they walked into the main lobby. As the sheriff headed for the front desk, Sam and Mike practically carried Jessica to a nearby couch, where she promptly collapsed. A brief flash of discontent flashed through her as Mike settled himself at his girlfriend's side. Sam envied Jessica and her ability to sleep off whatever was troubling her. Sam sat on the coffee table across from them, one eye on the sheriff and the receptionist and another on the door.

When Ashley, Chris, Matt, and Emily came in with the deputy, Sam had to put her finger to her mouth to stop Ashley and Matt from shouting their arrival. Chris was helped into a seat with Ashley sitting on one of the arms, Emily and Matt standing on either side of them. They all watched Jessica sleep, a blissful look on her face.

"She deserves it," Matt whispered. "If I'd dealt with half of the shit she'd been through, I'd never wanna wake up either."

"Do you think she'll sleep alright tonight?" that was Ashley, thankfully keeping her voice down.

Chris patted her shoulder in a comforting manner. "She'll be fine," he reassured her. "Look Ash, it's Jess. She could sleep through the fucking apocalypse if she wanted to."

They all managed at least a snort of amusement at that. Chris pulled a smile, clearly savoring the fact that he was still the resident joker. Emily pulled a face, annoyance passing over her features like a storm cloud. But whatever comment she was going to make, she had the sense to swallow down.

It wasn't a long wait before the sheriff and her deputy came back to the teens, keycards in hand. "We paid for two nights," she told Sam as she handed her the cards. "Y'all are staying in room 407, and there's a free breakfast and a coffee shop down the road if you all need something to eat. If you need us, I wrote down my cell. Don't hesitate to call."

The kids gave their bleary thanks and stumbled together to the elevator. Chris, Jess and to a lesser degree Matt all needed to be supported by the others while Sam lead the way down the halls. Room 407 was somewhere halfway down the hall next to a window, where the dark silhouettes of the mountains was imprinted on the black sky.

It took Sam three tries and a few cusses to get the key card in the lock so the door would open, but she got it eventually. Opening the door revealed a two room suite; a TV and sofa at one end and two queen sized beds at the other. A cot had been rolled in for them, extra blankets and towels mercifully piled on top of it. It was warmly lit, with lights so bright that the blackness of the storms outside faded into the background. There was a loud hum to the refrigerator, or maybe the heater, that blocked out the sounds of outside. The sounds of howling winds and swaying branches. The sounds of the mountain.

Without uttering a word, Sam claimed the couch and collapsed on top of it. The blanket the hospital had given her was still draped over her shoulders, and she tugged the corners under her until it completely incased her. Emily threw her jacket onto one of the beds and grabbed a towel to make for the showers, and Mike helped Jess get into the other bed because it was obvious she was on her last legs. Matt closed the blinds to the window. One by one, people claimed the blankets and towels until the cot was cleared, and after ten minutes of arguing, Chris let Ashely sleep on top of it while he set up a makeshift bed of quilts and towels besides her.

It took two hours for all of them to shower. One by one, they all marched into the bathroom and back out again. One by one, they climbed into bed, clothes and all. By midnight, they were all asleep, calmly listening to the lullaby of the refrigerator.

They kept the light on that night. No point in turning it off anymore.

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 **Please review, follow, and favorite if you enjoyed. Thank you for reading!**


	2. First Noon

**Hello all! Thank you for reviewing, following, and favoriting!**

 **I'm really amazed and grateful at the response this has gotten. It ain't my first rodeo, but thank you so much for all the kind comments! I really appreciate them. So in turn, I cranked out this chapter hella fast. Enjoy!**

 **All characters belong to Supermassive Games**

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Matt's dreams were exactly like the mines: dark, confusing, and never ending.

Maybe it was just his mind's weird way of coping with everything. He vaguely remembered from his AP Psych class that dreams were a way of processing someone's most recent events. If so, he fucking hated his brain. Long, dark corridors of rock and stone, with paths that went nowhere and tunnels that led up but revealed no light at the end of them. He thought he heard a girl's voice. Jess's, maybe, yet for a brief moment of relief he swore it was Emily. But when he turned around to follow the sound, he was met face to face with a monster. The last thing he remembered were glassy eyes, and he saw himself in them. That meant he also saw it when a large skeletal claw took his head clean off.

Matt awoke in a panic but his body miraculously stayed still. Light was struggling to pour in through the cracks of the blinds they had drawn the previous night. He tried to crane his neck to see a clock or perhaps grab his phone but in the end decided it just wasn't worth it. So he lay there, too nervous to fall back asleep, too apathetic to check the time, too aware of everyone's snores as they filled the room and drowned out the sounds of the refrigerator and the passing cars outside. At last, giving in to the exhaustion that he knew was still there, Matt finally squeezed his eyes shut and tried to will himself back to sleep.

It must've been a half an hour before someone else had gotten up. Matt heard them place their feet on the ground, then shuffle around, trying to be quiet but barely succeeding. Then, the low hum of the TV joined the other white noise of their small hotel room. Slightly interested and accepting the fact that more dreams were not going to come, Matt raised his head, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

Lounging on the couch was Sam, her head still half buried under piles of blankets. One pale arm stuck out, clicking through the channels with the remote. The stations were flicking through faster than Matt's bleary mind could process them, but his friend seemed to have no trouble. She finally settled on a local news channel, and Sam withdrew her arm and silently watched. Careful not to make any noise to disturb her, Matt took in his surroundings.

Chris and Ashely were passed out. It was weird, because Ashley's arm was draped onto Chris's shoulder who in turn was resting his head against her wrist as he leaned against her cot. It's about time those two got over themselves and started getting somewhere. Jess and Mike were curled up together on the other bed. They were so entangled that it would probably take a crowbar to pry those two apart. Jess had her arms tightly wrapped around her boyfriend while he had laid his good hand across her shoulders. A wave of jealousy slammed through Matt when he turned to look at his own girlfriend. Emily was on the same bed as him but she wasn't even acting like it. She was curled up tightly like a cat, her breathing slow and even. She wasn't even facing him. Was she mad? Granted, he did jump off that tower just before it fell, but Matt didn't know that jumping would send her and the fire tower down into the mines. Besides, she hadn't snapped at him yet since this whole thing ended. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe not.

"Matt? You up?"

Matt nearly jumped, unprepared for the acknowledgement. Sam had seen him and was starting to get up, shedding her blankets one by one. Her gaze unnerved Matt—her gray eyes were so clear and emotionless that it was almost like looking at one of the monsters again.

Once his brief flash of shock had subsided, Matt nodded. "Yeah," he said, then sheepishly added, "I couldn't sleep."

Understanding sent some emotion back into Sam's eyes. "Me neither," she sighed.

With some effort, Matt forced himself out of bed. Emily stirred slightly but didn't get up. As Sam threw off her red runner's jacket, Matt pulled his filthy turtleneck off and threw it into the corner. It left him in just his undershirt, but at least it was clean. "I'm starving," he confessed. "I feel like I haven't eaten anything in years."

"Well, it is almost ten," Sam told him as she unlocked her phone.

"Already?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Hey, I think that free breakfast is still going on downstairs. Do you want to get something to eat? We should probably let the others sleep."

Matt cast one more forlorn glance at Emily before nodding. "Yeah, no, breakfast sounds good. And some coffee too."

Ten minutes later, the two of them were heading down the hall together. Sam's t-shirt was covered in mud and dirt and Matt's sweatpants were torn up at the knees, so it was no surprise when others gave them peculiar stares as they made for the lobby. Sam walked on, head held up high, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Matt wished he had her confidence. He had never really thought of Sam as a leader, but the way she acted when they were being interrogated for hours upon hours yesterday gave him an entirely different idea of who she was. Everyone treated Mike like the de facto leader, which didn't really surprise him in the slightest, but Matt knew that Mike had a tendency to lose control of himself. Sam, on the other hand, was so calm it almost terrified him. She came out of her interview angry, yes, but besides those few minutes she was cool and collected. She had comforted Ashely and even managed to talk Emily down after she came out of her interviews angrier than Matt had ever seen her. It took him the longest time to decide of it was confidence or her becoming unhinged. In the end, Matt gave her the benefit of the doubt. Some of the old Sam was starting to break through, he noticed as they got into the elevator. She squeezed between two women who were clearly disgusted at her appearance, a small half smile on her face. "Gonna be even more awkward downstairs, hm?" she joked. Matt nodded vaguely in response.

Downstairs, Matt and Sam found the smallest table they could, as far out of the way as possible. Matt loaded up on bacon and eggs while Sam got herself a pile of fruit that could have fed a family of ten instead of a single girl. They ate mostly in silence. To be fair, Matt had almost forgotten how good eating felt, and it kept him occupied. Fortunately, Sam didn't seem too keen on having a conversation at the moment. Both teens went up for seconds, and piles of plates and empty glasses soon littered their eating space.

When Sam had finished her third bowl of fruit and shoved it aside, she set her attention back to him. Matt, too caught up in his scrambled eggs and sausage links, almost didn't notice her until he glanced up and saw her disgusted face. "Want some?" he jokingly asked through a mouthful of egg.

Sam's lip curled. "You know I can't eat literally everything you have on your plate right now."

It took three swigs of milk to get the mouthful down. "Nothing like almost dying to start eating like a normal person again," he said sarcastically while shoving more eggs into his mouth.

This time, Sam cracked a smile. "You know I could punch you in the face no problem, right?"

"Too well," Matt replied solemnly, shoving his plate onto the dish pile at the corner of the table. "Man, I don't think I could eat another bite."

Sam nodded her agreement. "Given everything that's happened, I think I need to upgrade my vegan status. I think I'm going ultra-vegan now; I won't even look at a piece of meat, never mind eating it."

"Can't really say I fault your logic. You'd be a shining example to vegans everywhere."

They both laughed at that. It was the first truly happy sound Matt had heard in two days amidst the monsters and the ICU and the endless, endless interrogations. It felt both wrong and right at the same time…why did it feel so conflicting?

Matt barely noticed that the laugh had died in midair and his smile was fading, but Sam hadn't. "What's wrong?" she asked, concern heavy in her voice.

"This…it all feels wrong," Matt confessed. "We shouldn't be laughing about this shit. People are _dead_ because of us, Sam. Emily told me how she found Beth and what happened to Hannah. And who knows what happened to Josh…oh God, this is all so fucked up."

Sam's gaze fell. "I know," she replied after a moment. "To be honest…can you keep a secret?"

Matt nodded.

"That's all I thought about last night. Josh. When Mike and I found him, I left them to find the others, but then Hannah attacked and Josh…" She paused for a moment. "I should have stayed. I should have done something."

"You did do something" Matt found himself arguing for her. It pained him to see Sam so defeated. "You blew up the lodge; Jess and I watched you do it. Well, we didn't know it was you, but hell, you did it. You pretty much saved all of us."

"But I didn't save Josh. And that's the thing, Matt—I _could_ have. I should have."

Matt fell silent, draining the last of his milk to prevent himself from saying something awkward or unnecessary.

After a moment, Sam perked up. "Look, I don't want you to worry about me, okay? You know, you never did tell us what happened to you in the mines. Jess hasn't really been in the state to talk. I was hoping to ask you when I got the chance"

"Didn't I?" The events of the interrogations and being with his friends were starting to blur together. He couldn't remember what he did and didn't do anymore.

He straightened himself up. "Well, Emily told you about the fire tower, right? Well, after that…"

-X-

 _Oh God, it was so cold. Matt had never been more cold in his entire life but now wasn't the time to dwell on it. He had seen the lodge burst into flames from their little outcrop. Jess sat at his feet, tears streaming down her face but she wasn't making any sound. At first, Matt thought she was just too scared or she was trying to make sure the monsters wouldn't come back for them, but when he finally tore his eyes away from the bonfire that had become the Washington's estate, he saw the truth. She was turning a pale blue, and she had resorted to pressing herself against the mountainside to escape from the worst of the winds._

 _Matt longed to take her down into the woods where the wind would never penetrate. Maybe stay there until it was all over and they could meet up with the rest of their friends, wherever they were. But the trees were a drop down the cliff sides that were easily the length of a football field. Jess was in no state to move anymore and Matt was not going to leave her side._

" _Here, Jess", against his better judgment, Matt began to strip off his letter jacket. It was torn, sure, but it was something. "Take this, I promise I'll get us off this mountain, okay? You've gotta hang in there."_

 _Jess nodded and began to wrap his jacket around her, and that was when he heard the sound of something whirling. When he looked up, a helicopter flew over his head, quickly followed by another._

 _Of course! In the wake of nearly dying from falling off a cliff and nearly dying from wall climbing monsters, the fact that he and Emily called for help had evaded him. It seemed like so long ago._

 _Matt raised his hands and started to jump as the helicopters flew over their heads, ignoring the cold biting at him and the possibility of the monsters coming back. "Hey! Hey! Down here!" he cried, desperately trying to get their attention._

 _But as the two helicopters whirled away, descending onto the blazing lodge, Matt felt his heart sink._

" _No…" that was Jess, huddling in the letter jacket._

 _Matt bit his lip, trying to think. There had to be something he could do. If the helicopters didn't get him off of this mountain, then their only other option would be to traverse the mines again and try to find a way out. But Jess was in no state to move, never mind walk through what could be miles of tunnels._

 _God, he wished Emily were here. Even if she was a total snob about it, at least she could think of something._

 _And then-_

 _Matt, without saying a word, suddenly lunged for the letter jacket. Jess flinched in surprise and tried to pull away but not before Matt found what he was looking for in the inside pocket._

 _The flare gun. Oh my God, Emily was there. Indirectly, of course, but she was there nonetheless. Matt almost wept with happiness as he held it. Wasting no time, he checked the barrel; it still had one flare left._

 _And just in time, because the helicopters were halfway back in the sky when Matt snapped the gun shut and fired it into the air._

 _For a moment, nothing changed. Even as the pale pink streak flew over their heads, the helicopters refused to change course. Matt felt his gut clench. Their last hope, gone, right before their eyes._

 _But then one of the helicopters began to turn around. And Matt nearly started weeping again. As it drew closer and closer, Matt jumped up and waved his arms like a madman. Slowly, the helicopter came over to the two teens until it was right above them._

 _Matt squinted when he saw something shiny being tossed out of the helicopter. It was quickly lowered to a point about five feet to the left of them and he saw it was a basket: probably about four feet long and made of metal with high sides._

 _Not even wasting a minute, Matt pulled Jess to her feet. "Come on Jess," he encouraged as he helped her into the basket. He rattled one of the chains holding it, hoping that would signal the rangers to bring her up. "Hold on tight. Tell the rangers to get you some blankets and water, okay?"_

 _If Jess heard him, she gave no sign of it. "Don't go…" she begged almost silently, but that was all he heard before the basket began its long climb back into the sky._

 _Not five minutes later, the basket returned for him and Matt clambered inside. After rattling the chain again, he was shooting into the air so fast it felt like the dropper ride he used to ride with Josh and Chris when the carnival came to town. Dawn looked so beautiful from up here, with sunlight glinting off the mountains and the pale pink and purple streaks staining the sky. The smoke from the lodge climbed into the air with him, like it wanted to follow him. Before Matt could even realize how high he had gotten, someone was grabbing at his arms. It was a ranger trying to pull him into the helicopter._

 _With their help, Matt managed to make it safely inside. Once glance told him all he needed to know. Two rangers were leaning over Jessica, covering her with blankets and trying to dab some disinfectant on her shallowest wounds. But he still saw the steady rise and fall of her chest. Relief washed through him—she was safe. They both were_

" _M-Matt?"_

 _He turned his head._

 _Emily was sitting right there, waiting for him._

 _-X-_

Sam blinked a few times. "Holy shit," was all she had to say. "Some story, man."

Matt shook his head. "It wasn't that much."

"You know, I really wish you would take a compliment," Sam dismissed his modesty. "The only other person to go deep into those mines was Emily, and at least she had some flares and found an elevator. You survived down there for four times as long as she did, with no light and no way out. How the hell did you do it?"

The words came spilling out from Matt, and he made no effort to stop them. "I don't really know. I mean, at first I thought I could go deeper into the mines, but I couldn't find any way down. I thought…I hoped that Emily had survived. But I couldn't find any way down that wouldn't break my neck in the process. Lots of broken elevator shafts and caved in tunnels. For the most part, I just kinda wandered with my hands on the walls but I still couldn't find any way out. After a while, I found a lantern and an old lighter with it. And when I turned around, Jess nearly took my head off with a shovel."

"In her state, I'm surprised she could even lift a shovel."

"That's what I thought."

Matt leaned back in his chair. "I couldn't believe it when I saw her. The girl could barely stand on her own two feet and she fell at least fifty, maybe sixty feet down a mineshaft yet she still nearly killed me."

Sam laughed, sort of hollowly. "Well, that's Jessica for ya."

"Yeah, right? Amazing how the monsters didn't get to her before I did."

Sam's eyes flashed. "Did you, you know," her voice dropped, glancing around as if she was afraid someone was listening. "Did you see any of them?"

Matt bit his lip. "Not until after I found Jess," he admitted. "I heard them, though. At first, I thought they were bats or something, but then I figured that bats didn't make those kinds of noises. They kept howling, and it kept echoing off the walls so I never knew which way they were coming from. One time, I thought I heard one. It sounded like it was scuttling, like a crab. When Jess and I were outrunning them, I turned around and saw on hanging pretty much upside down. Nearly shit myself."

Sam laughed again. This time, it was a much fuller laugh. "I found Mike a little bit before dawn after he blew up the sanatorium. If you thought a wendigo was scary, you haven't seen one of them on fire while they're trying to eat your friend's skull. First time I'd seen one that night. At first, I was so scared, I didn't know what to do."

Matt blinked. "Did you run?"

"Hell no," Sam gave him a crooked smile of sorts. "I had a shovel, so I took it and I chopped that fucker's head off."

They both laughed again. And this time, it didn't feel so wrong.

"Are you down for a coffee?" Matt asked. "I still feel asleep on my feet. I could use some caffeine in me right about now."

"Screw the coffee; you might as well inject it straight into my bloodstream," Sam joked, but she slowly got up and began to gather the dirty dishes. Together, with Matt's help, they loaded the plates and glasses into the bin on top of the trash can and began to walk for the front door. Light was streaming through the open windows, and blue skies were ahead. It was a beautiful day, thank God for that. Sam trailed half a step behind him, so Matt turned to look at her.

"We should get some for everyone," Sam noted, sticking her hands in her pockets. "Do you know what Em likes?"

"Triple venti half-sweet non-fat caramel and cinnamon macchiato with an extra shot of milk," Matt recited automatically. Sam stared at him.

"How many times does she ask you order for her?"

Matt smiled and shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I stopped counting after the fiftieth time. Mike once told me that it only gets worse when she's really irritated."

To his happiness, Sam chuckled. "When isn't she really irritated?"

Matt nearly laughed too as he reached for the front door to open it. He heard someone else talking to him, but it didn't register. As the door opened to the freezing weather of northern Alberta, he watched as Sam's smile vanished. "Matt, watch-!"

The rest of it, Matt didn't hear, because something large and hard slammed into his front. He snapped his head forward again as he was brought to the ground. His heart pounded wildly, his mind immediately jumped to a monster. It had come to finish them off, he knew it. But as he forced his hands up, he caught nothing but fur. For a heartbeat, he could see nothing but black and smell nothing but pines and dust. A loud sniffing sounded right in his ear, and the breathing of the beast was hot and heavy.

Suddenly, the weight on his chest was lifted and before he knew it Sam was helping him to his feet with a rattled look on her face. The bellhop was shutting the door and locking it in front of terrified onlookers. When Matt looked back to see his attacker, he did not expect to see a very dirty looking dog the size of a small horse staring back at him. It paced outside, watching all of them with unnerving yellow eyes. The bellhop began shouting things to the patrons who had come to investigate, leaving the door locked with a very menacing looking dog ready to pounce on them should anyone choose to leave. Matt rubbed his neck as the beast stared with a look that said that it was going to finish what it started.

"Holy shit," Sam breathed.

She didn't have to say that twice.

* * *

 **Man, I love Matt. Definitely the most underrated character in the entire game. I loved writing his character. And yeah, I know it was kinda another Sam chapter, but my goal with this story was to focus on the relationships that didn't get a lot of attention in the game, but I feel like should have (ie: Mike and Ashley, Sam and Emily, Chris and Jess), because god damn, I just want them to all be happy.**

 **Thanks for reading and please follow, fav, or review if you enjoyed.**


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